An open letter to Phil Mickelson, the city’s golf managers and the golfing public:

First, Phil. Sincere congratulations. It must be an honor to have your golf course design company be entrusted with renovating one of the two most recognized courses in your hometown and one of the great municipal tracks in the country. To get the contract to refresh the Torrey Pines North Course says a lot about what people think of you in this town.

Having said that, let’s get to the point: Please, please do this right.

Please.

Being such a large part of the history of golf in San Diego, and having grown up with your entire family playing at Torrey Pines, you know how much the course means to the community and the everyday golfer.

You know that there are golfers who refuse to play the South Course after its renovation 11 years ago by Rees Jones to get the 2008 U.S. Open. It costs significantly more and it’s a test so tough that the only things I personally enjoy about it are the views of Black's Beach and the hang gliders. Call me a golf wimp. It’s just not an every week test for anyone but a single-digit handicapper.

I think you feel my pain on this one, Phil. We all know that you’re not a fan of Jones’ work, and that you won three PGA Tour events at Torrey before the redesign and none since.

Maybe you wonder sometimes the same thing I do: If we were to only have one major ever played on Torrey South (and there’s not yet another biggie on the horizon), was it all really worth it when a majority of the city golfers don’t even want to play the course?

That’s why what you do with the North Course is so vitally important. And you know that. In 25 years, most golfers are not going to know you did the renovation, but they’ll know if they like your work or not. And they’ll know if you had their best interests in mind or somebody else’s.

This project shouldn’t be about making the course harder or more “strategic” for the two days a year the PGA Tour plays the North. In fact, I’ve talked to numerous pros who say the North should stay exactly the way it is.

From what I hear you want to make the North “playable” and more “fun.” I’m not sure what your definition of that is, because as a golf entertainer you are equal parts Sinatra and Knievel. But we’ll assume that it doesn’t mean tiny greens surrounded by more sand than the Sahara. We’ll hope that it means the average guy can still run the ball up to the green, and not have to fly it to every dang hole (yes, we’re talking about you Rees). We’ll hope that the greens aren’t so tricky that we’d need Bones to read them.

We know that there isn’t much rerouting that can or will be done, and that’s a good thing. Do the greens have to be redone? Is the public clamoring for it? No. Even some pros say that despite the softer poa annua, they’d rather putt on the North than the South because the North’s surfaces are more consistent.

But the green complexes on the North are more than 50 years old now, and they could no doubt benefit from modern green building practices and irrigation. The greens have lost some surface size and definition over time and the bunkers are flat and nothing special. Some of them aren’t even in play.

So we get that. Maybe the North is a little tired. On that spectacular piece of land, maybe golfers don’t know what they’re missing. Maybe when this is all done, they’ll say, “Why didn’t they do this a long time ago?”

That reception is very much in your hands, Phil. People don’t like change and the fate of their golfing pleasure on their beloved muni is at stake. The public didn’t get a say in giving you the work, but golfers are no doubt hopeful you’ll do the right thing.

Just remember: This could be as much a part of your legacy in San Diego as those three green jackets.

To the city golf managers, it is your responsibility to make sure this gets done right. The course does not belong to Phil Mickelson. It’s the citizens’ course and you represent them. If at any point in this process you waffle between the interests of Mickelson, the PGA Tour, various stakeholders and Joe Golfer, the San Diego golfing public should win out. And apologies for the hardened skeptic in me, but that certainly hasn’t always happened in the past.

This is a project budgeted at nearly $7 million. That is an awful lot of money to spend on a municipal facility in these tough economic times. It is being paid for through the golf enterprise fund that is flush with cash because out-of-towners are willing to fork over nearly $200 a round to get beat up on the South.

When the North renovation is done, maybe you can charge them nearly that much over there too. If you can, more power to you. But if you raise prices for locals on the North at any more than nominal intervals, using the renovation as the impetus, golfers should and will scream bloody murder.

Your top priority is to keep municipal golf affordable for the average person. That’s already gone sideways on the South. You should be ashamed if you jack up the North.

The public is going to have the chance to see Mickelson’s plans on Dec. 18, though the choices for that are curious. The meeting isn’t in a city facility, but The Lodge at Torrey Pines. Is this a public forum or a fireside chat?

As for you public golfers out there who love the North for its playability and beauty, my advice is to make yourselves heard. Not a shovel has been turned on this project and won’t be for several years. There is time to change the course of this if you don’t like it.

The beauty of this is that you can still believe the North is YOUR golf course, and that elected officials will heed what you have to say about it.

Take this all in with an open mind, and then make your own call on it. I usually assume the best in people, so I’m going to accept that Phil Mickelson has your best interest in mind. He should. Three decades ago he was a kid in your shoes, paying a reasonable price for the quiet, satisfying joy that is the North Course.